(originally published 9/20/2017 via Market Intelligence Center)
Machines may not yet know how it feels to love, but according to one of the world’s most powerful legal artificial intelligences, there may yet be hope for divorcing super-couple Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie to mend fences. CaseFacts.tv, a new website purporting to provide “Moneyball”-style insights on legal proceedings, recently reported that based upon the litigation records of Brad and Angelina’s respective divorce attorneys, their chances of reconciliation are a hair better than one in four. In much the same way that Moneyball/sabermetrics has changed the way commentators talk about baseball, the field of legal commentary is ripe for an analytics revolution.
CaseFacts forecasts are based upon the calculations of Miami-based software firm Premonition, which claims to hold the largest litigation database on earth. By analyzing court records to understand the past performance of attorneys, the predilections of judges and broader trends in the legal system, CaseFacts brings a Big Data mindset to understanding the cases that draw headlines. This predictive technology has already proven to be a destabilizing influence on the tradition-bound legal industry, exposing high-priced but under-performing attorneys and influencing the decisions of Fortune 500 general counsels.
According to CaseFacts’ AI, the x-factor in the Pitt-Jolie proceedings is Pitt’s representative Lance Spiegel, a 70-year-old Beverly Hills family law practitioner who has previously represented stars like Charlie Sheen, Eva Longoria and Def Jam music mogul Russell Simmons. A surprising number of the attorney’s cases, which are primarily marital disputes, have not actually ended in divorce. While this stat alone hardly paints Spiegel as a “marriage whisperer,” it may indicate that his style favors conciliation, which would be welcome news to Brangelina die-hards.
It’s worth noting, however, that the Los Angeles Superior Court has yet to assign a judge to their case. Premonition’s studies have shown that the relationships between judges and attorneys has a 30.7% impact on the outcome of a given case — which could also seriously skew any AI-based predictions about the couple’s chances of making up.
For armchair legal experts and insiders alike, CaseFacts reports on cases like the Uber spying lawsuit yield intriguing insights. The popular ride-hailing giant has been battered by controversies over the past few years, and has had a decidedly mixed track record in the resulting lawsuits. CaseFacts’ video argues that these defeats were at least in part due to poor lawyer selection on the part of the tech giant, suggesting the company might have spared itself a number of multimillion dollar settlements and public embarrassments had they simply taken a closer look at the numbers.
“CaseFacts.tv is a great public outlet for the insights we’re constantly happening across in the course of our work,” says Premonition Co-Founder and CEO Guy Kurlandski. “When you become accustomed to viewing the world through numbers, the stories you see every night on the evening news take on a new dimension. Much of what they say is nakedly subjective. Often, knowing the tech we have back at the office, it’s clear we could answer these questions better than the guys on TV.”
Premonition has recently opened a number of new international territories, including India, Australia, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, and announced a partnership with the New York University School of Law. In addition to CaseFacts.tv, Premonition has produced public reports on top performing lawyers in the UK, insurance industry litigation trends and data-based strategies for lawyer selection.